It’s hard to imagine that the most anticipated — and expensive — video game of all time, GTA VI, started out as a top-down game where you stole cars, drove around and killed people.
And except for the top-down part, I’ve just described every GTA game in the series. So, in addition to top-down, let’s add that the first game had crude graphics and an annoying collision detection.
But for some reason, it was fun. A lot of fun. And smooth. At least if you had a 3Dfx card. The effect it had on the game was huge.
So, the first game was top-down. The expansion pack was, obviously, top-down. GTA 2 was, once again, a top-down. All with the same game mechanics, more or less. And then came GTA III…
With GTA III, everything changed — except for the stealing, driving and killing; that was the same. But it was no longer hard to imagine that this game could go places.
GTA III introduced proper storyline, a protagonist, roman numerals, and — best of all — a full 3D, third-person, open world. You could roam around in a sprawling environment.
One year later they followed up with GTA: Vice City. Which might be my favorite in the series by the soundtrack alone.
So, in November, GTA VI will be released. And it will be big. It will be 3D. And the soundtrack will probably be epic. And a lot of people will call in sick just to play the game.
It’s amazing when looking back at the first game. How much has changed, and how much has stayed the same.
Playing the original
If you want to try the original game today, I would recommend using dgVoodoo2. There is a guide on Steam on how to use it. Rockstar did give this game away for free at one point in time, so it should be possible to find it online.
One tip: Set aspect ratio to 4:3 in dgVoodoo2, otherwise you will not see everything you need for the game to make sense.
Fitting a city into 32 MB of memory
And if you are interested in the more technical side of things, I found this video fascinating. It’s about how Rockstar fit an entire city (GTA III) into the memory of PlayStation 2.